The CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) sanctions concept of economically punishing countries that continue to purchase Russian and Chinese arms is about to become much more effective after the forthcoming global application of the “European Recapitalisation Incentive Programme”, which will see the US sanctioning states that don’t progressively transition away from their current multipolar suppliers to American ones instead.

Adding a carrot of sorts to the traditional sanctions stick, the US will help countries fund their new American purchases, which will supposedly incentivize them into complying with Washington’s demands. This new policy represents a much more muscular approach to “military diplomacy” than before and shows that the US properly understands the challenge that Russia and China’s own application of the same poses to its global interests.

The European Union is expanding its partnership with Bank Leumi, a major financier of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

The EU claims to oppose Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied territories, a war crime.

On Monday, Emanuele Giaufret, the EU ambassador in Tel Aviv, trumpeted news that the European Investment Fund and Bank Leumi are expanding a loan program for tech companies in Israel.

This past Sunday the Polish Foreign Ministry announced that it had canceled an official visit from an Israeli delegation in Warsaw, since the Israelis were there to demand $300 billion in “restitution” for jewish property that they say had been stolen during WWII. Thousands of Polish patriots marched through the streets to send a clear message to the Israelis that they are sick of the BS.

More than 650 companies are breaking European chemical safety laws, according to an investigation from German environmental group BUND. As a result, potentially harmful chemicals can be found in food, cosmetics, and toys.
“Chemical companies have been disregarding the law for years and getting away with it, selling substances that might cause hormonal cancers, brain disorders and other severe health problems,” said BUND’s chemical policy officer Manuel Fernandez. “EU and national authorities need to raise their game in a big way.”

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) acknowledged that companies have been known to flout chemical safety laws last November, investigating 700 widely used chemicals and finding that two thirds of them broke REACH, the agency’s key safety regulation.

During the past few decades an intellectual movement has arisen out of the ruins of what once passed for Western civilization. As the great narrative of secular humanism, materialism, and progress collapsed—its obituary was published by Lyotard as The Postmodern Condition—an odd constellation of nationalist and traditionalist thinking began shaking the foundations of Western intellectual and political life. The Trump regime in America, Brexit in the UK, the Yellow Vests in France, and the loosely associated right-wing parties across Europe espousing what The Saker calls “National Zionism” are all symptoms.

Switzerland is one of the most gun-friendly nations in Europe. It has one of the highest rates of gun ownership per capita on the continent, and those numbers are probably skewed low because many households contain guns technically owned by the military as veterans keep their service weapons at home for rapid call-up purposes. (I haven’t been able to find a definitive answer as to whether those weapons are counted or not.)

Switzerland also isn’t part of the European Union.

However, the country does enjoy a good relationship with the EU. That relationship is threatened right now because the EU wants Switzerland to put tougher gun laws in place or else find its easy access to the rest of Europe cut off.

Now, the nation is set to vote on whether it should adopt new gun control measures, and opponents of the move are invoking a folk hero known for shooting tyrants.

A week from today, Europeans may be able to gauge how high the tide of populism and nationalism has risen within their countries and on their continent.

For all the returns will be in from three days of elections in the 28 nations represented in the European Parliament.

Expectation: Nationalists and populists will turn in their strongest performance since the EU was established, and their parliamentary group — Europe of Nations and Freedom — could sweep a fourth of the seats in Strasbourg.

Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party is predicted to run first in the British elections, winning two to three times the votes of the ruling Tory Party of Prime Minister Theresa May.

A Dutch politician was arrested, Friday, by Israeli security forces, while carrying a Palestinian flag, after Friday prayers in the occupied Old City East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Israeli soldiers arrested Tunahan Kuzu, the leader of Dutch political party DENK and a parliamentarian, as he was walking toward the al-Aqsa Mosque with a Palestinian flag in his hand.

The schism between the United States and Europe over Iran bears the hallmarks of their friction over Iraq prior to the 2003 US-led invasion. Their current dispute is mainly over means not ends, but could have major implications for transatlantic relations and the Middle East.

Both the US and the EU would like to see the Ayatollahs' Iran contained and constrained, preferably under new leadership - just as they wanted to see Saddam Hussein's Iraq before 2003 - but as in the past, they disagree on how to go about it. To put it simply, it is a dispute over "carrots or sticks" - or whether to bring Iran to its senses or bring it to its knees.

The Europeans want to compel the Islamic Republic to change its behaviour using trade and investments in accordance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), while the US wants to coerce it into a much more debilitating deal through tough sanctions and the threat of force.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki vowed that his country will never pay restitution for Jewish properties stolen during the Holocaust, saying that such a move would be a “victory for Hitler.”

At a Saturday campaign rally in Lodz, Morawiecki doubled down on his insistence that his Law & Justice party “would not consent” to claims of Holocaust restitution, telling voters “We will defend Poland.”

The United States will go to war with Iran if nothing is done to prevent it. This is the assumption that the world’s geopolitical actors have worked off for the better part of two decades, and there has been precious little evidence to the contrary.

In the early 2000s, once it became clear that the War on Terror was, for all intents and purposes, a war without end, Iran loomed in the background of the nightmares that engulfed Afghanistan and Iraq and persist to this day. The fact that this original member of the ‘Axis of Evil’ escaped the heyday of post-9/11 imperial adventurism has stuck in the craw of the United States’ sulking, unrepentant neoconservatives ever since.

Italian unions have refused to load cargo onto a Saudi ship carrying weapons, in protest against Riyadh’s war on Yemen. The dock workers have gone on strike, refusing to work until the ship leaves port in Genoa.

While the Saudi Arabian ship, the Bahri-Yanbu, was expected to leave for Jeddah by the end end of the day, it seems the delivery might end up being rather late. After unsuccessful attempts to have the ship barred from docking in Italy altogether, it was greeted by banners and a protests as it arrived in port Monday.

The likelihood of a U.S. war with Iran is increasing, despite alternately isolationist and provocative messages coming from Trump administration officials.

The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln is now sitting off the coast of Iran, and the U.S. has asked its non-emergency personnel to leave nearby Iraq. Meanwhile, there is a debate about images of what the New York Times described as “missiles on small boats in the Persian Gulf that were put on board by Iranian paramilitary forces.” Whether those missiles photographed were offensive or defensive is important in determining whether the U.S. is misrepresenting Iran’s actions as threatening.

When it seemed as if the British had lost their survival instinct as a society, the European Parliament election came along. The message delivered by every poll is undeniable: unlike their treacherous political class, the Brits are still amongst the most sophisticated people around, they are performing a landslide exodus from their rotten leading parties: the Conservatives and Labour. They are marching back to their true cultural roots: conservatism on one hand (the Brexit Party), welfare and openness on the other (the Liberal Democrats).

With just days left before the European elections take place, it is pretty clear that the Tories are going to be wiped out. The party that calls itself conservative is being humiliatingly beaten by a man who truly fits the term.

In an interview with the German daily Zueddeutche Zeitung ahead of the European elections Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged Europe to unite and stand up to the US, Russia, and China. Amid the ongoing tussle with Washington over higher import tariffs and the US pulling out of the Iran deal, one of Europe’s most powerful politicians stated that “the old certainties of the postwar order no longer apply” expressing confidence that “Europe needs to reposition itself in a changed world”.

The schism between the United States and Europe over Iran bears the hallmarks of their friction over Iraq prior to the 2003 US-led invasion. Their current dispute is mainly over means not ends, but could have major implications for transatlantic relations and the Middle East.

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has provocatively listed the USA under President Trump along with China and Russia as countries that Europe needs to unite to contain.

Germany, France and the Netherlands have said they will not block Huawei from participating in the expansion of national 5G networks. The US fears that China could use Huawei equipment for spying.

France will press ahead with a social and economic reform agenda that spurred months of anti-government protests in France even if the right-wing comes out on top in European elections, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday.

Ten days from the vote in France, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National party, which is running on a campaign to overhaul the EU from within, is level with Macron’s En Marche in opinion polls, Reuters said.

Angela Merkel said on Thursday she would be unavailable for any further political office after serving out her fourth term as Germany’s chancellor, dismissing speculation that she could take a big EU job in Brussels.

“I am not available for any further political office, regardless of where it is – including in Europe,” Merkel told a joint news conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Berlin.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister and anti-immigration leader Matteo Salvini has fired back after German Chancellor Angela Merkel claimed she wouldn’t let his party work with her in the European Parliament.

The two clashed just a week before the European elections.

The United States has all but threatened the European Union with war – albeit a trade war – over E.U. plans to boost cooperation between member states on military spending.

First reported by Germany’s Der Spiegel and later confirmed by Reuters, the Financial Times and AFP (among others) – although sadly unpublished in full – Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Ellen Lord (previously the CEO of U.S. defense contractor Textron Systems) and Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson on May 1 sent a letter to the E.U.’s chief diplomat, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini outlining U.S. concerns about access to E.U. funds for American corporations.

The tiny EU country of Luxembourg and the United States agreed on Friday to work more closely on projects in space, including research and exploration as well as defence and commerce.

In the last few years, the grand duchy of Luxembourg has moved to join the US at the forefront of what has been dubbed the new space race.

The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday to boost research, exploration, defence, and space commerce as well as tackle problems like regulatory reform and space debris.

"It covers the broadest possible range of space activities to be undertaken by the two countries as an important next wave of economic growth," US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said during a visit to Luxembourg to sign the deal.

Poland's Ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski, was attacked on Tuesday outside the Polish Embassy in Tel Aviv, according to a report by the Hebrew website Ynet.

Magierowski was standing outside the embassy when a man started to physically and verbally assault him. The ambassador was too overwhelmed to understand the words his attacker said. All he heard was, "Polish, Polish," said Magierowski, Ynet reported.

Warsaw has refused to compensate Jewish families for the property they lost during WWII, and said that Germany owes Poland up to a ‘trillion’ in reparations.

“The Polish position is firm and clear: we don’t owe anything to anybody,” the government’s spokesperson, Joanna Kopcinska, stressed during an interview on a local radio station on Thursday.

Poland condemns ‘racist’ attack, summons Israeli envoy in protest; Foreign Ministry expresses shock; suspect apologizes, says he was called a ‘Zhid’ by security guard

Facebook has banned 23 major Italian pro-populist pages with a combined 2.5 million followers two weeks before the European elections, according to Italy's La Stampa.

The majority of the bans were for supporters of the current coalition government; La Lega (The League), headed by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, and the 5-star movement, M5S, led by Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio. Among them, the most popular Facebook page for La Lega was taken down, right as polls reveal massive support for the party.

Facebook claims that the sites were spreading fake news, "hate speech," and "divisive content" about immigrants, vaccines and Jews, after left-wing "human rights" and environmentalist non-government organization (NGO) Avaaz issued a report on "inauthentic behavior" over Italian Facebook networks.

The Polish Foreign Ministry yesterday cancelled a scheduled visit by Israeli officials to Warsaw saying they intended to discuss “the restitution of Jewish properties” seized during the Holocaust.

“Poland decided to cancel the visit of Israeli officials after the Israeli side made last minute changes in the composition of the delegation suggesting that the talks would primarily focus on the issues related to property restitution,” the foreign ministry in Warsaw said in a statement posted on its website.

A Polish official said in a statement, that “Israelis will not be prevented from coming to Poland and talking about the issue, but with regards to their desire to talk about restitution, our position is that the Germans are responsible for crimes against Jews committed in Polish territory during the Holocaust. Therefore, if they are interested in restitution, they should talk to the Germans.”

Thousands of people rallied in Prague on Monday in fresh protests against the new justice minister over concerns she could clear the prime minister of fraud allegations.

Some 20,000 people gathered in the capital's historic Old Town Square for a third week in a row, according to Czech media, and thousands of others protested in the second city of Brno.

Police charged billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis in connection with a two-million-euro EU subsidy scam last year and called on prosecutors to indict him last month.

A group of NATO warships entered the Baltic Sea in April, approaching Russia’s borders multiple times. In particular, the USS Gravely was previously spotted about 50-60 kilometres from a Russian naval base in Baltiysk.

Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) flagship the USS Gravely has begun patrolling the Gulf of Finland, according to the Automatic Identification System (AIS) tracking. The American destroyer, which is equipped with Tomahawk missiles, will sail past Russia's borders during its mission.

Other NATO vessels, including the British HMS Westminster and Polish ORP General Kazimierz Pulaski from the SNMG1, are expected to join Gravely later this week.

It seems for the State Department lately it's all Iran and Venezuela all the time, or perhaps there's just an aversion to real diplomatic work.

After snubbing Germany's Merkel last week to make an unplanned stop in Iraq to pressure leaders there into resisting cooperation with Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday scrapped a scheduled trip to Moscow, diverting his plane for a surprise visit to Brussels to presumably crash an EU meeting exploring ways of salvaging the Iran nuclear deal.

The World Health Organisation said the rise in cases was "unprecedented" for a preventable disease.

They revealed they are rapidly ramping up their response to the outbreak, which has spread over two years, “based on the growing number of children and adults affected by and dying from the disease".

Measles is one of the leading causes of death in the world from a disease that can be cured by a vaccine.

Many of Sweden’s bank branches had stopped handling cash altogether.

Figures from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm show that only 18% of all payments made today in Sweden are in cash – a 15% drop from the previous year. Meanwhile figures from the Swedish Trade Federation show that most Swedish retailers say that 80% of their commerce is from card payments. A number that probably will be 90% by 2020. Such is the appetite for digital commerce in Sweden that many predicted it could become the world’s first cashless society.

But, now, as The Daily Mail reports, The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, an arm of the government, has sent guidance to every home telling residents to squirrel away “cash in small denominations” in case of emergencies ranging from power cuts or technology glitches to terrorism, cyber-attacks by a rogue government or war.

The so-called "Petrol Uproar", which has been largely modelled after the Yellow Vests of France and is pushing for lower fuel prices, gathered a quarter of a million supporters on Facebook in no time.

I’m just having a quick whip-round to which I know many readers will be eager to contribute: it’s to raise money to help Olly Robbins begin a new life in Belgium.

Robbins, as you know, is the senior civil servant — Theresa May’s chief Brexit adviser — who has done so much to try to help ensure that Brexit doesn’t happen and that Britain remains stuck in the European Union till the end of time.

Now we know why: it turns out Robbins’s secret ambition is to live at the very heart of the EU project as a Belgian citizen.

We learn this from a BBC4 behind-the-scenes documentary about Brexit seen from the perspective of the EU’s negotiators. In it the EU’s Brexit chief Guy Verhofstadt — the curtain-haired slimeball, as The Sun fondly calls him — says that Robbins begged him for asylum.

The European Union says it rejects any ultimatums issued by Iran, saying in a statement that it won't bend to threats that Tehran will break from the nuclear deal and begin enriching uranium unless European signatories uphold their commitments within 60 days.

Citing frustration that the EU is not pulling its weight in the face of tightening US sanctions, Iran's leaders said Wednesday it would stop its disposal of excessive heavy water and uranium, a key compliance term under the JCPOA.

“We strongly urge Iran to continue to implement its commitments under the JCPoA in full as it has done until now and to refrain from any escalatory steps,” the EU officials said in a statement. The EU, UK, France and Germany said they have "great concern" over Iran's move.

The rise of the right-wing in Europe may be a tired cliche at this point. However, a new Danish party has courted fresh controversy for hiring some distinctly un-PC candidates, as the country goes to the polls next month.

Stram Kurs (Hard Line) will run for election for the first time in June. The party pushes a combined message of small-government libertarianism and “ethnonationalist utilitarianism.” The latter translates as a ban on Islam, an immediate withdrawal from refugee conventions, and the deportation of all asylum seekers and any “non-western persons.”

The party also favors a crackdown on Danes who “help alien enemies undermine Denmark,” presumably charities and NGOs. Hungary’s Viktor Orban spearheaded a similar crackdown with his ‘Stop Soros Act’ last year.

A US official is warning investors, banks and businesses in Europe not to work with Iran in the wake of the United States’ unilateral pressure on Tehran.

“If you’re a bank, an investor, an insurer or other business in Europe, you should know that getting involved in the INSTEX special purpose vehicle is a very poor business decision,” Tim Morrison, the National Security Council’s senior director for weapons of mass destruction and biodefense, said at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies on Wednesday.

The European Union has been trying to launch the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to allow its companies to continue business with Iran despite US sanctions, yet to no avail so far.

The past few years have seen the EU face a whole array of problems, specifically pertaining to Brexit and refugees, something that has sparked differences between the bloc’s member states about how these pressing issues should be resolved.

In an interview with the Swedish tabloid Afronbladet, former Polish President Lech Walesa specifically claimed that the EU wasn't worth preserving in its current form.

“The EU was created in completely different conditions than those currently taking place. I have repeatedly warned Germany and France that the bloc cannot be saved if its member states go in different directions”, Walesa said.

A US official is warning investors, banks and businesses in Europe not to work with Iran in the wake of the United States’ unilateral pressure on Tehran.

“If you’re a bank, an investor, an insurer or other business in Europe, you should know that getting involved in the INSTEX special purpose vehicle is a very poor business decision,” Tim Morrison, the National Security Council’s senior director for weapons of mass destruction and biodefense, said at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies on Wednesday.

The European Union has been trying to launch the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to allow its companies to continue business with Iran despite US sanctions, yet to no avail so far.

Tehran and Moscow have called on the European sides to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to comply with their commitments to guarantee the survival of the agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

After holding talks with his Russian counterpart in Moscow on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attended a joint press conference with Sergei Lavrov, during which he said the nuclear deal's survival could be guaranteed if the agreement's European signatories fulfilled their obligations, which he said they had yet to fully honor.

Russia and China have fulfilled their obligations “but other countries, particularly the European sides to the JCPOA, have failed to honor their commitments," said Zarif.

While the defenseless population of Gaza was being pummeled by the Israeli military on Saturday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief condemned the firing of rockets from the territory in a nakedly one-sided statement.

“These attacks provoke unspeakable suffering to the Israelis and serve only the cause of endless violence and of an endless conflict,” Federica Mogherini admonished, making no mention of the Palestinian victims of massive Israeli bombing.

“Together with the international community, we will keep working to bring relief to all those suffering from this conflict and cooperating with those who serve the cause of peace,” she added.

Police arrested a 51-year-old woman for profaning Poland’s most revered Catholic icon, the Madonna of Cz?stochowa, by painting an LGBT rainbow halo around her head and that of the baby Jesus.

On Monday, P?ock police detained El?bieta Podle?na over the alleged offence after investigators found several dozen posters of the Virgin Mary with the rainbow-colored halo in the woman’s home. The woman was later released.

Joachim Brudzi?ski, Poland’s interior minister, said on Twitter Monday that a person had been arrested for “carrying out a profanation of the Virgin Mary of Cz?stochowa.”

“Telling stories about freedom and ‘tolerance’ doesn’t give anyone the right to offend the feelings of believers,” said Brudzi?ski, who has described the posters as “cultural barbarism.”

The 358th Public Affairs Detachment said in a news release that soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, conducted a field training exercise with anti-tank weapons amid deteriorating Russia–US relations.

On May 2, American forces gathered at the Johana Range, Poland, to fire the M136 AT4 Light Anti-Armor Weapon, an 84-mm unguided, portable, single-shot recoilless rocket launcher, which is one of the most common light anti-tank weapons in the world.

"Today's training gives the Soldier a familiarization with the weapon system," said US Army Staff Sgt. Larry W. Kirby, a squad leader assigned to Charlie Company, 3rd BN, 66th AR, 1ABCT, 1ID.

Three Madrid courts ruled on Monday to allow former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, as well two members of his government to run in the upcoming European Parliament elections, thereby overturning the Spanish election authority’s decision, the High Court of Justice of Madrid said.

As if to mark one year since President Trump formally withdrew from the JCPOA - better known as the "Iran Deal" - last May, the foreign ministers of the UK, France and Germany, as well as EU foreign policy head Federica Mogherini, on Saturday issued a statement condemning the White House's decision, and vowing once again to abide by the terms of the deal.

The statement is the latest sign that Trump's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iranian oil exports could set up the US for a showdown with its allies in Europe that could accelerate the de-dollarization of the global financial system, as Europe continues to work on an alternative payments system to the Treasury-dominated SWIFT network.

Hundreds of regular Austrian citizens expressed to a national newspaper their views on migration, with some saying they felt like foreigners in their own country.

The comments flooded in, partly in reaction to populist Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache commenting on the concept of “population replacement” and in response to an opinion article in Austria’s largest newspaper Kronen Zeitung that agreed that demographic changes are a reality but which criticised Strache’s term for being a “conspiracy.”

Kronen Zeitung republished some of the “hundreds” of responses they received to the column with many readers saying they felt that mass migration had changed Austria to the point where some felt highly alienated.

“The mood in our condominium has deteriorated so much that we (65 and 68) are ready to move away to finally be able to live in peace again,” one comment read, while another lamented the trend of foreigners not learning the German language.

The European Union and donor countries held a conference yesterday to discuss a new financial proposal to solve the crisis of Israel deducting or “stealing” about $139 million of the tax revenues collected by the occupation state on the Palestinian Authority’s behalf. This is the amount that the PA pays as stipends to the families of prisoners and martyrs, and Israel’s reluctance to pay the cash puts the PA at risk of financial collapse.

The new proposal actually involves accepting Israel’s policy and convincing PA President Mahmoud Abbas to back down from his nationalist, principled position of refusing to accept the entire amount as long as Israel continues to use Palestinians’ money as a means to punish them and put pressure on the authority. What is this new mechanism? How does it serve Israel?

Sweden is seeing an increase in the number of cases of Leishmaniasis, a rare parasite that can be fatal in certain serious cases, with researchers claiming a link between the rise of the disease and mass migration.

Vice President of the European Commission Jyrki Katainen has demanded Poland hand over more money to the EU and said it should adopt the euro single currency.

Katainen said in Warsaw on Wednesday that “the EU is not just a money machine, a cow that you can milk. We are expecting a more substantial contribution from Poland for the future of Europe,” reports German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Mr Katainen was marking 15 years since Poland joined the EU, along with nine other countries, in 2004. Since that time Poland has received more than €100 billion for various projects, making it the single biggest recipient of EU funding in the bloc.

Full implementation of US embargo law on Cuba is illegal under international law, the EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said as she promised retaliatory measures amidst yet another row between Brussels and Washington.

The “full activation” of US embargo legislation against Cuba is “contrary to international law” and goes against the previous US-EU agreements, Mogherini said on Thursday, promising to apply “all appropriate measures” to defend European interests.